Ever since Apple announced the new firmware upgrade for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the internet has been flooding with news and secret finds about the beta releases. Apple is currently at Beta 5 of the process and is expected to release around 4 more, as most of its previous beta releases have totaled to 9. Apple has announced that it is a free upgrade for both iPhones but there is a $9.99 fee for iPod owners. It has also been promised that there will be 100 new features for the user and 1000 new API’s in the 3.0 SDK for the developer.  Apple’s iPhone 3.0 Software is slated for a summer release, most probably in June at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). Below is a list of new features you can expect in the official release of the 3.0 firmware, a lot of which are already available in the beta releases.

• Cut, copy, paste and “shake to undo” – Text can be selected by holding a finger on top of text or placing two fingers between desired text that needs to be cut or copied. You can also double tap a word to select it. When typing, a slight shake will bring up a small menu to undo your typing.
• Lanscape keyboard – This feature will replace many apps from the App Store as Apple now allows a landscape keyboard for most of the native applications such as Mail, Notes, Text Messages, etc.
• In-app purchases – Now developers can add in-app purchases to their apps such as buying an extra gun for a shooter game.
• Call log – The Phone app now keeps better record of incoming and outgoing calls and call durations. 
• Voice memos – A whole new app from Apple, record memos and share with others or save them for later use.
• MMS – This has been a recent hot topic as Apple only allows the iPhone 3G to use MMS leaving the first gen iPhone owners with just SMS. It has been proven that the first gen phone can handle MMS as it is just a software update and no new hardware is needed, also direct contact to the chip maker of both phones has further confirmed that the first gen iPhone is MMS capable.
• Push notifications – No background processes in the release, instead Push Notifications will give you updates changes to certain apps, ie, same way as you recieve mail.
• Google maps integration – Developers can now integrate the Google Maps app into their apps or games.
• Youtube Login – Youtube now allows you to login to account, leave comments, ratings, subscribe to channels.
• Peer-to-Peer connectivity - A way of sharing data in apps or games, users can connect with each other via Bluetooth. iPhone users can play games over an IP connection as well.
• 3 rd party hardware accessories – Developers can create an iPhone software to go along with a hardware that they have and connect it to the iPhone via the dock connector port or Bluetooth. A diabetes monitor was featured in the March iPhone OS 3.0 Preview event which wowed the audience. Many new iPhone compatible technology hardware are already in the works.
• Tethering – This allows for 3G users to bring internet access to their computers with out the need of WiFi. All thought many carriers do not support this feature, Apple was quoted as saying “We’re supporting tethering in the client side, we’re building that support in. We’re working with our carriers around the world. We are building that support in.” This is true as jailbroken phones have been able to enable this feature in the beta firmware.
• Turn-by-turn navigation – Using the CoreLocation API, 3rd party apps can now add turn-by-turn navigation to their GPS app.
• Spotlight search – An app familiar to Mac users, a page to the left of the home screen in the springboard acts as a searcher for the entire phone. It can look through everything from Contacts, Mails, Messages, iPod, apps, etc.
• Search - you can search for things in specific apps instead of Spotlight, ie, search for an email in the Mail app, or a song in the iPod app.
• New calender types - Users can now subscribe to two types of calendars: CALDAV (used by Google and Yahoo) and the .ics format (used by Apple).
• Stereo bluetooth A2DP support – Now you can use your A2DP Bluetooth device with your iPhone.
• Notes syncing – You can now sync notes with itunes.
• Wifi and Safari auto-login – If you have a subscription to a WiFi hotspot, it will automatically log you in each time you visit. The new version of Safari will also remember usernames and passwords and you will be able to use the Autofill feature.
• Shake to shuffle – A shake of the iPhone will allow you to go to the next random song in the iPod app.
• Parental controls - Filters for adult content can be added to various apps and also developers are now to create age groups for their programs.
• Voice communications – Apps can access a VOIP service so users can communicate via voice while playing a game.
• More languages – Apple has built in support for 17 more languages.
• Headlines for stocks – You can get headlines for tickers in your Stocks app, also there is landscape support for the charts and you can get the stock price at any point on a chart.
• Anti-phishing – Safari will warn you when you visit a page that tries to scam you.

UPDATE:

• Voice Control - There have certain files found in the new betas that point to a voice control system on the phone. This has been nicknamed “Jibbler” and allows you to control your phone by voice anywhere including the springboard.
• Easy sharing of Podcasts - A button in the navigation bar that can be clicked to send an email with the iTunes Store link of the podcast.
• Battery Percentage - You will have an option to choose if you want the battery meter to be displayed as a percentage of remaining juice.
• Better Data Detectors – Detects data such as emails, phone numbers, addresses so you can tap it and it will open with the appropriate app, such as Mail if you tap a detected email.
• iPod Audio Scrubbing – This allows you to change the speed of the currently playing track to “High Speed” or “Qaurter Speed”.
• Video Recording/Editing/Publishing  – This may be just for the new iPhone or also the iPhone 3G, you can record videos, edit them and upload them to services like Youtube all from your phone.
• More Springboard Pages – The new firmware allows for 11 pages (compared to the current 8 pages) of apps and games in the springboard, that’s 180 apps and games.

More will be added as they are found. Am I missing a feature that you know? Submit it to me via the contact page.